Better road safety

Created on Thursday, 28 March 2013 00:02Published on Thursday, 28 March 2013 00:02

The recent death of a young man along Becraft Lane in Lockwood is tragic. Unfortunately though, the real tragedy is that this isn’t the first and, most likely, won’t be the last senseless and preventable death along the busy thoroughfares in the Lockwood community. There will be continued and accelerated growth and increased traffic volume along the narrow and dangerous arterials of Becraft, Old Hardin Road, Johnson Lane, U.S. 87 and Piccolo Lane.

A few years ago a young man on a bicycle was killed on Old Hardin Road. People contributed money to do something about the widely recognized and long neglected issues of inadequate Lockwood roads. This money was used by the Lockwood Urban Transportation District to commission a professional study and the development of a comprehensive transportation plan for Lockwood. The tragedy with this has been that the Yellowstone County Commissioners have largely ignored the plan.

Walkways/bike trails are desperately needed. Widened and resurfaced roads are necessary to safely handle the variety of heavy traffic that uses the roads daily. Reasonable speed limits and traffic control measures need to be established and enforced. Also, adequate lighting must be provided. Lockwood citizens have been voicing concerns about these issues for years but, tragically, the people in authority have done very little in response.

Instead of relentlessly working against those of us who have tried to bring improvements to our community of Lockwood, the Yellowstone County commissioners should collaborate with us. We would all be the better for it.